Monday, July 17, 2006

The company you keep

I was very disappointed to hear that the Vatican had joined such an undistinguished group in calling for Israel to stop defending itself. As someone who went to a Catholic high school in the 1980's it does not surprise me that there are political tensions similar to society at large; liberation theology et al. However, there are changes are being made by Benedict XVI which could prevent the church from siding with the likes of these:

ROMA, July 14, 2006 – Benedict XVI’s second summer as pope opened with a lightning visit to Valencia, Spain, and will close with a visit to his native land of Bavaria, from September 9 to 14. He has already announced, after his return to Rome, that his first act of governance will be the change of the secretary of state, with cardinal Tarcisio Bertone (see photo) replacing cardinal Angelo Sodano.

Benedict XVI’s initial plans did not include making the announcement as early as he did, with an official statement last June 22. But the resistance he encountered within the curia convinced him to nip the opposition in the bud.

...

More than diplomacy, it is important to Benedict XVI that his secretary of state be highly skilled “in pastoral practice and doctrinal understanding.” And Bertone, in the pope’s view, has both of these prerequisites: apart from being a professor of canon law and rector of the pontifical university of his order, the Salesians, he was the bishop of Vercelli, and most recently of Genoa. [Emph. added.]

I suppose if you were predisposed to finding offense then you might say that. Of course, you could just look at it as an exaggeration for effect and then debate the point of the cartoon. So lighten up, Francis.